Faceshift wins both awards at the Lift Venture Night

The AlpICT Venture Night is one of the highlights of the Lift Conference. This year eight start-ups competed for two prizes. The first one was awarded by a jury of successful entrepreneurs: Pierre Chappaz, CEO ebuzzing, Carlos Moreira, founder and CEO Wisekey, and Daniel Freitag, co-founder and creative director of FREITAG. The entrepreneurs chose Faceshift. The spin-off of EPFL has developed software for real-time motion capture. In addition, the jury named Cooa.la and Keylemon as runners up.
 
The second prize was awarded by the audience. And the participants chose the same company as the jury: Faceshift.
 
The solution of Faceshift is really fascinating. The start-up from EPFL’s Computer Graphics and Geometry Laboratory, now offers a software program that could save time for the designers of animation or video games. Thibaut Weise, founder of the start-up, smiles and nods. On the screen his avatar, a fantasy creature, directly reproduces his gestures. This system could enhance the future of video games or even make video chats more fun.
 
One tool required: a camera that has motion and depth sensors in the style of Microsoft Kinect or Asus Xtion, well known to gamers. During its first use, the software needs only ten minutes to recognize the user’s face. The user reproduces several basic expressions requested by the program: smile, raise eyebrows, etc. “The more movement is incorporated into the program’s 50 positions, the more realistic are the results,” explains Thibaut Weise, creator of the start-up currently based at the Technopark in Zurich. Then you can get into the skin of your character and animate by moving yourself. “It’s almost like leaving your body to enter that of your avatar,” jokes the young entrepreneur.

Credits: The two paragraphs about Faceshift were originally published by EPFL.